Sean Williams comes to Free Rangers HQ

Recently Free Rangers hosted Sean Williams AKA @seaninthewoods a Michelin trained chef with a passion for delicious outdoor cooking and creating a relaxed, sociable vibe around a fire.

Sean shared his story, explaining how his experience in world renowned restaurants provided him with incredible skill but at the same time lacked the qualities around sharing food that motivated him the most; intimacy, chat, sharing ideas and thoughts and making the process of cooking and eating much bigger than the product itself.

As the morning unravelled and the mist lifted, we all stretched and cooked our own flatbreads, understanding the look of the embers and the temperature necessary to cook straight on hot coals.

We all spoke and chatted more freely as this hands-on approach to a meal facilitated interacting with more people, not those just sat next to you. Children tried and tested this unusual way of cooking and these sometimes harsh critics even gave the spelt flat breads their seal of approval.

Sean has bought his own woodland and is soon to embark on establishing a retreat style cooking experience for guests, in Surrey, who are looking to reconnect with cooking and the great outdoors.

Many of you who attended were asking after the recipes and Sean has kindly sent them though, please do give them a go over the spring and summer and show us how you get on.

Fundraising to Build a School at Free Rangers

Finally, Free Rangers would like to thank Sean for venturing down to the West Country and offering his time and expertise for free. We explained our vision to extend our setting to offer Forest School to older children as a form of mainstream education and it turns out we shared many of the same thoughts and feelings about how education should be for younger children that Sean very kindly supported the day, despite a very hectic schedule.

We have raised over £200 pounds, and although this won’t build a school tomorrow, it will fan the flames and continue to make our desire to create a learning environment that our younger Free Rangers can move on to. Furthermore it is so heartening to know that industry experts from all walks of life are motivated to join the discussion surrounding education and make an impact for the good of future generations.

If you would like to chat all things outdoor and early years education and stay up to date with future events at Free Rangers, then please do follow us on Instagram and Facebook; @freerangersnursery. 

All these recipes are better cooked directly on to beech wood fire embers, but all can be cooked on a hot frying pan or on a pizza stone in an oven. 

Flatbreads

Ingredients:

350g Organic white Spelt flour

350g Organic bakers blend spelt

200g sourdough starter – if you haven’t got sourdough you can use 1 instant sachet yeast

Pinch of salt

25ml olive oil

50ml milk

360ml water

Method: 

Warm the water, milk and olive oil to about 37 degrees.

Add the sourdough or yeast and leave for about 30 minutes.

Then mix all ingredients together and kneed into a smooth ball this may take about 5 minutes.  

Leave to prove in a warm place and cover with a tea towel or cling film.

Once the bread has doubled in size you can then make into balls and leave again for about 30 minutes.

You can use these breads and flatbreads like we did together or you can even add toppings and use as a pizza base.  

You can also substitute the Sharpham park flour for a ‘00’ pizza flour.  

Garlic Butter

Ingredients:

Handful of wild garlic

One block of butter

Pinch of salt

Method:

Melt the butter to about 75 degrees then put in a blender with the garlic.

The liquid will then go very green after about 3 mins it should all be once consistency.

Pour over into a bowl with another bowl underneath full of ice.

Keep stirring until the butter is cold.

Baba Ganoush

Ingredients:

6 aubergines

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 white onion

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp tahini

1 lemon juice

300ml olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method:

Cook the aubergine until they are complete soft.

While the aubergine are cooking in a sauce pan fry the onion until soft and golden

When the onion is cooked add the cumin and continue cooking until you can smell the sweet aroma from the spice.

Add the tomato puree and cook for a further 3 minutes then add half the olive oil.

When the aubergine are done blend everything together and then season.

To find out more about Sean visit his website:

www.seaninthewoods.co.uk

 and follow him on Instagram:

@seaninthewoods

Thoughts from a Danish Student

Introducing Di, short for Diana. 

Di is here with us for 6 months as part of a Danish degree course in Early Year’s Education.

She wanted to write a blog post to introduce herself and her motivations behind why she has chosen to pursue a career in Early Years.

Di is currently based in the Den, but can also be found across all rooms of Free Rangers.

Everyone say hi to Di!

Hi, I'm Diana, and I’m a Danish student here at Free Rangers for 6 months. I am one of those who have chosen to take a half-year placements abroad. I am very excited about the opportunity to be here and hopefully learn a lot. I think it’s an important work for the whole community. How we, as role models, can develop and educate these children who will grow up to become active citizens of the great community.

MY CHILDHOOD

Another reason why I have chosen to work with this area pulls traces back to my own childhood, where I myself fought with my own self-esteem and self-confidence.

Why would anyone waste their time on me?

Why am I always being so stupid and always appear out so awkward and almost impossible to have a normal conversation with?

Why am I not like the others?

It was just some of the questions I always asked myself being young….

I had a kind of a rough childhood and experienced a lot of bullying, some of it because of growing up in a family that didn’t have much money. My mother was at home trying to get it all together in her best possible way. But with a grumpy father in the house drinking too much, it could be difficult to make the economy fit and creating a safe environment for us. I therefore spent most of the time on my own, since I didn’t feel I belonged anywhere. I've always had a feeling of being in the way and not being good enough for what I was doing.

The feeling inside being useless has been strengthened all the way through my life, mostly it is by others' comments about things I do, words will always hit me hard and I still sometimes have to think extra if it’s just for fun. Because I have heard all these words before while growing up, and back then it was not for fun or joking around. When I think back, the hardest was from my mathematics teacher who almost thought it was fun that someone could be so stupid to solve mathematical tasks. So I was always pointed out and had to solve them by the board. - It took me time to understand he was being a bully instead of being a supporting teacher. 

WHY I WISH I HAD GONE TO NURSERY

So how did it even come to that point I had a hard time in school and wasn’t confident? My own conclusion is, that it was because of I never gone to any type of child day-care and always been at my mother's home until the day I started school. Therefore in the beginning of my childhood, I have not learned the same social skills as my classmates. And of course the fact that I had an old school teacher who failed to support me. I am sure that safe surroundings, support and the learning of social skills from a good teacher are a major factor in a child's life.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHALLENGING YOURSELF

It has taken me many years to become who I am today and the ability to socialize with others. I am now at a place in my life where it's time for me to get new experience and I find it exciting to get out on my own feet and learn to navigate in new situations. In my placement here at Free Rangers I will learn about new methods and get an insight into other ways of doing things. At the same time, being here is giving me a new knowledge about myself, and Iearning about a new and different culture than I am used to.

I think it is a good thing for me and a good challenge, trying to start from scratch with the building of new personal and professional relationships, and then it’s even in a language I’m not used to speak daily.

So with my own childhood in mind is it one of the reasons I feel dedicated to this area. I want the best for all children and in somehow achieve success in life. Not everyone needs to be good at mathematics. Because as Howard Gardner says:

“It is not about how smart you are; it is about HOW you’re smart”

I know that I can't change the whole world, but by being here, I can get knowledge about the world, that I can use to make a difference for someone else in their journey through life.

Can a child's diet affect their behaviour?

As a parent myself I always notice the instant effect of some foods and drinks on my children's behaviour. (Never again will a Fruit Shoot pass their lips!)

But what is the latest research saying?

Instinctively we feel that sugar almost instantly turns our children into Tasmanian Devil style lunatics who run around and ping off all the furniture. But physicians say there is no scientific evidence to co-oberate our theories. 

One line of thought is that adrenaline is released upon sugar consumption (particularly highly refined sugars) more quickly in children than in adults, meaning behaviour, in the form of hyperactivity will result. But more recently, a link has shown between healthy guts, healthy minds and positive behaviours.

This article explains how this relationship works:

Healthy Guts

So whether you're a finger licker or a bowl scraper, at Free Rangers we always strive to provide the children with unrefined sugars, leafy greens and food that will promote gut health and a balanced diet. As research grows, it seems we really should listen to our "gut instinct" when it comes to what we should be trying to feed our children. 

S.L.E.E.P - we all need it to make us happy!

Last month we went to the Be.Nips seminar in Bath for Mental Health and Children.

We heard Paul Stallard, Professor of Child and Family Mental Health at the University of Bath advise us all to remember to talk to our children. This seems easy and like common sense, but how do you actually discuss your child's feelings or indeed not say the "wrong" thing.

Paul used an analogy:

S.L.E.E.P

S: Stop what you're doing and engage with your child if they have given you a cue they want to talk.

L: Listen to what they are saying. We all want to help our children but sometimes we can be guilty of butting in and trying to solve the problem.

E. Empathise, put yourself in their shoes and confirm that you can understand why they might be feeling like that.

E: Explore, what made them feel like that? What happened to make them build up to these feelings? Explore the context of the problem with them.

P: Plan a way to cope with the scenario if it happens again.

A negative cycle in thoughts can happen when children focus on their weaknesses rather than their strengths, so try to build an environment in your home where strengths are celebrated and weaknesses treated with compassion.

We also found these little resource cards from Mindful Kin, they are great for exploring feelings and starting to open up discussions about how your child is feeling.

Sugar Free Ice Cream Recipe

This ice cream recipe only contains the naturally occurring sugars found in bananas, the children at Free Rangers love it and it's really easy to make.

Ingredients

3 organic bananas

450g natural yoghurt 

Serves: 6 children

Method

1) Freeze 3 organic peeled bananas 

2) Blend with natural yoghurt, check the yoghurt has less than or equal to 5g of sugar per 100g 

3) If you like lumps then keep a few chopped bananas to add to the mix, before you refreeze.

4) Refreeze for 30 mins, the longer you freeze the harder the consistency, if you freeze for an hour, you could add to a cone and the ice cream would keep its shape.

5) Serve, we sometimes sprinkle raw cacao powder to add a little kick.

Please note you can substitute bananas for raspberries, strawberries, blueberries......you get the idea?